Which Plants To Use in a Mixed Native Hedge

The exact list of what species you’re going to plant in your native hedge is clearly defined as “well, mate, it depends”

Picking which plants should go in your mixed native hedge broadly happens in two ways: either it’s done to meet the requirements of a grant, or it’s freestyle.

Choosing A Hedge Mix for Grant Funding

The default basic mixed native country hedge is at least two species, one or both of which will be “thorn”, meaning hawthorn and/or blackthorn.

To qualify for the most common government hedge grant, the Countryside Stewardship BN11, that mix must be no more than 70% of one species
Other grants have their own requirements, often attuned to a region’s traditional hedge management
Practically all grants specify native species

In practice, most new mixed native hedges in the UK are planted in mixes of 4-6 species, with local exceptions for traditional single species hedges, like beech hedgerows on top of stone hedgebank walls around Devon, or vigorous hazel in some wet, shady locations.

In large scale planting, the cheapest ready made mixes are used: that’s our Countryside Stewardship Grant hedge mix, which comes in a basic 2 species mix to meet the grant requirements, or a prettier 5 species mix that supports more wildlife.

Choosing Your Own Mixed Country Hedge

If you are not planting for a grant, you can plant what you like, including:

All a single species, with one big rambling rose near the gate for fun
Super Diverse™ with over 20 native species
Species that aren’t traditional for hedges e.g. birch, oak, or cherry, mixed with thorny canes like blackberry and wild rose (see below)
Even non-native, e.g. deciduous berberis is ideal with its dense thorny thicket growth is great for nesting birds, and ornamental dogwoods in the mix add winter colour.

Blackthorn / Sloe: Berries are used in Sloe Gin. Flowers in very early spring, before any leaves appear. Not suitable for chalk.
Hazel: Naturally bushy from the base. Very good for supporting bees. Any soil, including wet. Fine for very windy sites but not the coast.
Crab Apple: Fruit can be used in crabapple jelly. Lovely pink-white blossom.
Guelder Rose (Viburnum opulus): Not actually a rose! Round bunches of white flowers that turn into bright red berries. Great autumn colour. Fine for chalk & heavy clay, not for acidic soils.
Hawthorn / Quickthorn: The all-time best country hedge plant. A typical mixed native hedge is 50% hawthorn, planted in every other space. Any soil except waterlogged; damp, heavy clay is fine.
King Edward VII Flowering Currant: Makes lovely showers of pink flowers, even in shady spots.
Maple, Field: Warm autumn colour. Any well drained soil.
Pear, Wild: Lovely dense plant. Small fruit can be used for hedgerow jam. Any soil, pollution & drought tolerant.
Privet, Wild: Not evergreen like the privet you see in city hedges, but otherwise very similar.
Rose, Dog: Dog rose is the cheapest and the best, but for a splash more colour you can throw in a few of the other wild roses.
Spindleberry: Bursts of colour with pink & orange fruit and pink autumn leaves.
Wayfaring Tree (Viburnum lantana): Great autumn colour. Grows well on chalk.
Green beech: traditional on top of sunny, exposed banks in the South West, such as Exmoor

Which Plants Not to Use in a Mixed Country Hedge

Oak
Horse Chestnut
Willow
Sycamore
Birch
Ash
Lime
Native Cherries (Prunus avium and P. padus)

These native trees aren’t ideal for country hedging. They might be too slow growing, or they don’t get bushy in response to being trimmed, so the hedge gets gappy.
We don’t add them to our hedge packs, however, you could use them anyway:

They’re fine to have dotted around in a mixed country hedge, surrounded by the plants listed in the section above
They’ll find their way into established hedges anyway, usually causing no problem, unless its excessive

But if you were to make a hedge from them as major ingredients, like you might with Hawthorn, the results would be gappy and unsatisfactory, especially in Winter:

When those plants are mixed with enough thorny species that provide dense, bushy growth, the combination serves perfectly well.
And for wildlife, the more diverse the hedge, the better.

Elderflower Is OK Hedging By Itself

Elderflower, Sambucus nigra, is a bully in a mixed hedge that needs extra cutting back to stop it taking over. Given time, it swells at the base, and makes spreading antler-shaped growth at the top that carries its leaves over its neighbours.
A pure Elder hedge works fine, even if it looks a bit rough in Winter, and it will grow in all conditions. Good wildlife hedge companion plants are brambles or blackberries, and wild roses or ramblers planted in their own row beside the Elder, not in between the Elders.

Blackberries and Other Thorny Canes

If you do a little work to maintain them, it’s great for wildlife to sprinkle some wild blackberry brambles in your hedge, or a nice vigorous Bedford Giant next to a gate where you’ll have a few fruit for yourself.
You can plant them at the same as the hedge and cut them back if they get too big too quickly, and they are great for quickly filling gaps in mature hedges.

Brambles should not be allowed to take over an establishing hedge that has not reached full size
Brambles will build up beneath normal hedge trimming
So, to keep them in check, use loppers or slasher to cut all the thick old stems near ground level in Winter